Insomnia

ARTICLES ABOUT INSOMNIA BY DATE - PAGE 3

Two weeks ago, Alanna DePasquale, a young Dania Beach mother, drowned her 7-month-old daughter and took her own life with a gun. A day later, Melanie Stokes, a Chicago doctor's wife and mother of a 4-month-old daughter, jumped to her death from the 12th floor of a hotel. On Wednesday, Andrea Yates, a mother in Houston, drowned all five of her children, ages 6 months to 7 years. All three women were being treated for postpartum depression. The husbands of the three women told authorities that their wives were devoted to their children, yet at a time when society expects them to be the happiest in their lives, each apparently reached a point of desperation.

SHAME THE DEVIL. George P. Pelecanos. Little, Brown. $24.95. 299 pp. It was "just a slow morning on a hot summer day," 1995. A pizza parlor crew starts work as a mother and son skip to an ice cream store, "the two of them had nothing but time." But within an hour, an armed robbery gone wrong will end lives and leave the survivors in perpetual grief. The Farrow brothers and Roman Otis had planned to quickly rob the restaurant, which doubles as a bookie joint, and then, just as fast, leave town.

Dear Dr. Donohue: I am a 75-year-old woman, in good health except for one problem -- insomnia. I asked my doctor for sleeping pills, but he's reluctant to prescribe them. I'm reluctant to walk around like a zombie every day. Can you suggest a compromise? -- J.M. Dear J.M: Aging decreases the ease of falling and staying asleep, but it doesn't decrease the time needed for sleep to refresh the body. Older people don't attain the depth of sleep that makes a person ready to take on the day upon rising in the morning.

The couch in the cramped office of psychiatrist Roberto Estefan is getting a heavy workout. By day, Estefan treats a stream of patients suffering from panic attacks, insomnia and depression provoked by a magnitude 6 earthquake -- the worst to strike Colombia this century -- that devastated this western city on Jan. 25, killing more than 1,000 people. At night, the patients' couch serves as the doctor's bed, because Estefan's apartment building collapsed in the quake. Recovery efforts have focused on clearing the debris and providing emergency food and shelter.

The sleeping pill Halcion is safe and effective when taken as directed for short periods of time, according to a report issued last week by the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences. But the report, which drew criticism from some consumer groups, also cautioned that there is no clear evidence to show what the effects may be of taking Halcion for extended periods of time and at higher doses than the drug's label recommends. "Halcion has not been thoroughly tested for the way it is often being used, which is at higher doses and much-longer durations than recommended," said William Bunney, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Irvine, and chairman of the committee that issued the report.

People who have insomnia in their 20s are more likely to develop depression decades later, a new study suggests. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have followed more than 1,000 men who were medical students at the university from 1948 to 1964. Men who reported insomnia or problems sleeping under stress during medical school were about twice as likely to suffer from depression later in life than students who didn't report sleep problems. The researchers found that the increased risk due to insomnia could last at least 30 years.

With no reason to wake up early and plenty of temptation to stay up late, summer is a time when many teens develop sleep disorders. "Sleep disorders are without a doubt as common as apple pie," said Dr. Natalio Chediak, a sleep expert who runs the Boca Raton Sleep Disorders Center. For teens, inherited sleep disorders are far less common than the acquired ones that develop as a result of irregular sleep cycles and poor sleeping habits, Chediak said. A classic example of self-induced sleep behavior is the acquired "night owl syndrome" many teens want to be rid of when school resumes.

Insomnia has many causes and cures. Characterized by difficulty falling asleep or difficulty staying asleep, insomnia is a sympton, not a disease. While sleeping pills may relieve it temporarily, the best treatment involves discovering what is causing the insomnia. - POSSIBLE CAUSES It may be caused by stress, an out-of-balance sleep-wake rhythm, medical problems, mental illness, allergies, diet, smoking or drinking alcohol before bed. - TREATMENT Insomniacs should complete a lifestyle and sleep hygiene questionaire and record information about several nights of sleep.

What if you could take one pill each night that would help you sleep, slow the aging process, boost your immune system, reduce your risk of cancer and heart disease and, as an added bonus, improve your sex life? Some researchers think that pill may be melatonin, smaller than an aspirin and as easy to buy. Millions of Americans are popping the little pills despite the fact that most of the studies on the substance have been done on mice, not humans. Articles in Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report, segments on 20/20 and other television newsmagazine shows, and several recent books have led to record sales of the inexpensive supplement (less than $15 for a two-month supply)